6 EPISODES. 



on its plan ; for under a hundred Protean forms, and almost 

 as many different names, had our intended work been floating 

 for months before our "mind's eye." Letters Sketches 

 Conversations, these were familiar shapes into which our ma- 

 terials might be moulded ; but they seemed, in one sense, too 

 familiar ; the public taste might be tired of these hackneyed 

 modes of dressing up the sister sciences. Besides, clothing 

 such as this, however light, would over-much confine us in 

 the very discursive rambles which we had thoughts of taking 

 amongst our creepers, and fliers, and swimmers. Episodes 

 might better serve our purpose, and impose fewer shackles 

 on our roving fancy : Episodes, then, they shall be called 

 Episodes of Insect Life, providing every month a seasonable 

 admixture of the Eeal and the Ideal. But to-morrow, and 

 for a month to come, what insects will be in season ? Of all 

 the summer myriads, the bulk have long ago expired; the 

 remnant, scared even by the shadow of advancing winter, 

 betook themselves to hidden places ; and now old Christmas 

 has benumbed them with his icy paw, and keeps them un- 

 conscious prisoners within the earth or waters. 



We may still discourse, it is true, of torpid Bees, of sleeping 

 Ants, of buried Beetles, and a forlorn few of widowed Wasps, 

 stupified by grief or cold, sole relics of their perished race ; 

 but what a drowsy, doleful prelude would this be to the cheer- 

 ful airs we would draw from the harp of nature. These insect 

 sleepers would furnish us, with themes of life in death, for in 



